I think that’s a battle for me too actually. I have a research background (science) but I write crime fiction (creative). Not an easy thing and I’d never be able to weave them together as you do with this poem.

I’m with Margot–impressed you used poetry to describe scientific processes. One thing I didn’t understand though, the mice? What were you referring to there? I also noticed how you contrasted the careful way scientists treat bones and the paths of eerie beauty where particles had met (CERN, LHC??), as compared to the mice who are “injected.” Did you do that on purpose?

Yes, I’ve got friends who are immunologists/neuroscientists and they work with lab mice, have to inject them with all kinds of substances or stress them out (to observe their reactions). Increasingly, they too feel torn about this, and I notice their wish to distance themselves from this activity. Which is why it’s the only verse that doesn’t begin with ‘they’, the scientists. Well spotted!